Recruitment Stumbling Blocks

Advice

When recruiting you could spend a lifetime researching the perfect approach, and follow that effort up by tailoring your advertising with precision, revising your copy to an inch of its life. You have hope, hope that the one perfect candidate will read it, that they immediately jump at the chance to apply. And sometimes it happens.

Time

The average corporate job opening attracts 250 applications[1]. With 89% of people open to hearing about better job opportunities[2] and an average of 52 days taken to fill a vacancy[3], the chance is, they are in there, right? Obviously it's not a given and it’ll take over 8 hours (at 2 minutes per CV) to find out.

48% of businesses received few or no qualified applicants

On paper the answer is a thoroughly unhelpful 52%. 48% of businesses reported receiving few or no qualified applicants through their own advertising[4]. That implies that in half of the instances, when you invest the time to review 250 CVs, you will find a suitable candidate for the job.

However it's not just 8 hours. We’re naturally positive people, so let’s assume that you found that advertising sweet spot and have 4 candidates you can invite to a 1st interview. 3 turned up, 1 didn’t show and you never found out why (you left a voicemail; dropped an email and even Googled the local news, just in case). Currently that can be put down simply to it being a candidate driven market[5].

Of those you met, 1 person you liked, but she wasn’t experienced enough and 1 was experienced enough but you didn’t like him. Fortunately 1 is just right. If they weren't another 8 hours needs writing off.

Flows two ways

Perhaps it’s a little late to bring it up but throughout the process have you focused at all on what the candidates need from you, or have you purely been filling your requirement. The top 5 biggest considerations job seekers take into account before accepting a job offer are: salary and compensation; career growth opportunities; work-life balance; location/commute and the company’s culture and values[6].

You did, and they like you too. You offer them the job. There is unfortunately a final hurdle. They have to like you more than the other companies they’ve met, the salary needs to be what was discussed and when they resign, you’d better hope that they’re not counter-offered by their own employer (seems they undervalued their employee and just realised it’s a long, difficult and potential expensive process to replace them).

Salary is the biggest consideration when seeking a new role

Finding statistics on rejected job offers, it’s not easy. Not a favourite for anyone to share. What we can know is that 44% of declined offers are due to candidates accepting other jobs[7], that’s rising, and 14% had a counteroffer and 25% received a disappointing salary offer (lower than they had asked for).

This is a complex and competitive environment and it’s incredibly easy to waste precious time, money and resources to get absolutely nowhere. Within the hiring process there are numerous choke-points, pitfalls and uncontrollables. You need a backup plan, and a backup plan for the backup plan.

A rushed, poorly written advert or job description, a lengthy hiring process, a candidate looking at many roles in a situation they know they control. To achieve your goals, you need a tight process, with the flexibility to expedite very strong candidates and reach timely recruitment decisions. Manage expectations and you’ll acquire some real talent.